HHSC Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Update

As part
of our on-going progress effort to Stage 4: Integrated Testing , several
important adjustments have been made. First, the clinical project
team recently transitioned their work effort from the Test system to the
newly delivered Production system. Due to some unexpected stability
issues in the new Production system impacting overall readiness, the
Emergency Department roadshows for Kahuku Medical Center, Kona Community
Hospital, Kohala Hospital, Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital and Samuel
Mahelona Memorial Hospital have been canceled, and will be rescheduled for
September or early October. The Siemens team is working aggressively
to resolve the stability issues.

The ED
Roadshows for Lanai
Community Hospital (August 13), Maui Memorial
Medical Center (August 14) and Kula Hospital (August 14) remain on the
schedule as planned, pending resolution of the systems stability issues. You can expect to see rescheduling announcements in the upcoming
week or two.

Secondly, based on the results of a project assessment of all
HHSC facilities conducted by Siemens and HHSC management, the HHSC Board
of Directors on July 19, approved a $17 million adjustment to
a recast EMerGE budget that covers several important project
components that were not included in the original preliminary budget,
including additional costs (over the course of a five-year period) related
to the following:

Wide-area network build out (additional infrastructure)
including data communication links between HHSC facilities and the
corporate data center located on Oahu;

The
need to upgrade facilities to conform with data center standards such as
fire and safety and having appropriate servers available;

Cabling for wireless access;

Specific interfaces and related equipment for monitors and
other medical equipment;

The
additional funds are necessary to keep the project moving forward and
enable HHSC to meet its “meaningful use” deadlines. HHSC is looking
at covering these additional costs through a combination of operating
funds and municipal leasing financing.